Sir Oswald Stoll Foundation southern block, gates, gate piers, wing walls and railings facing Fulham Road

This charitable foundation provides housing for disabled former servicemen. The building was constructed between 1917 and 1923 to designs by Joseph and Smithem (about 1916) and Inigo R Tasker (about 1920), executed in an English Baroque style. The complex has undergone later additions and alterations.

Materials and Plan

The front elevation facing Fulham Road features red brick walling laid in English bond, with Portland stone dressings. The rear has landings with iron balustrades and colourwashed walls.

The original plan was E-shaped, with three ranges of flats extending northward from the present front range (as indicated by the large arches on the southern front). The easternmost wing survives to its full original length, whilst the west wing has been partially demolished and extended. The central wing was demolished and replaced by a garden. The buildings forming the community have been redeveloped as a rectangular enclosure, with ranges of later 20th-century and 21st-century buildings of different dates surrounding this central area.

The basic unit of habitation was initially a flat with a living room at the centre of its eastern side featuring a canted bow window, though this arrangement has been altered to provide more, smaller flats. The bay window motif is visible across the building. On the western balcony side of each flat is the entrance, kitchen and bathroom.

Exterior

South Front (Fulham Road)

The principal frontage faces south onto Fulham Road. It is symmetrical with five principal bays arranged in an A-B-C-B-A pattern, divided by panelled pilasters. An entablature runs above the second floor along the front and flanks, featuring a blank frieze.

The ground floor has rock-faced, banded rustication. Windows are sashes with moulded ashlar surrounds. At the centre is a canted bay window extending upward for all four storeys, topped with a hipped ashlar roof. It is flanked by sashes of 4×4 panes, where the ashlar surrounds are joined between the first and second floors to form one continuous panel, with projecting aprons below the second floor windows that connect with the projecting triple keystones above the first floor windows. The fourth floor has paired windows resting on the cornice, above which is a wide segmental parapet entirely of ashlar, bearing the inscription 'SIR OSWALD STOLL FOUNDATION'. Above the inscription is a diamond-shaped panel surrounded by a carved wreath, similar in appearance to one of the war seal stamps.

The bays at far right and left are similar, with central canted bays and joined sash windows at either side. The bay windows have flat heads and the parapet takes the form of a balustrade.

The second and fourth bays, to either side of the centre, have large entrance arches of three-storey height leading through to the rear. These feature banded rustication and large-scale cavetto moulding, with voussoirs connecting to the underside of the entablature. Above each arch is a tripartite window at fourth-floor level. The panelled pilasters dividing the bays terminate as piers at parapet level. They were originally crowned by iron finials, which have been removed.

West Flank

The west flank is blind but has a central marble tablet divided into three parts by engaged Ionic columns resting on brackets and rising to support an open segmental pediment. This pediment is flanked by the dates '1914' and '1919' in relief.

The central panel records the establishment of the foundation: 'THE WAR SEAL FOUNDATION WAS INITIATED A.D. 1915 BY SIR OSWALD STOLL AS HIS TRIBUTE TO ALL WHO FOUGHT AND SUFFERED IN THE GREAT WAR. PRIMARILY THE OBJECT WAS TO ERECT, EQUIP AND MAINTAIN SELF-CONTAINED RESIDENTIAL FLATS, WHEREIN DISABLED EX-SERVICEMAN COULD LIVE WITH THEIR FAMILIES AND OBTAIN FOR THEMSELVES ON THE SPOT THE AFTER-CARE AND AMELIORATIVE TREATMENT NECESSARY TO THEIR WELL-BEING AND COMFORT. THE NECESSARY FUNDS WERE RAISED BY THE SALE OF WAR SEALS AT ONE HALFPENNY EACH, BY DONATIONS AND BY THE ORGANISATION OF VARIOUS FORMS OF PUBLIC ENTERTAINMENT IN BRITAIN AND THROUGHOUT THE EMPIRE DURING THE WAR AND FOR SOME TIME AFTER THE DECLARATION OF PEACE. THE FOUNDER PERSONALLY BORE ALL THE COSTS OF OFFICE ADMINISTRATION AND PROPAGANDA AND GAVE THE FREEHOLD OF THE SITE NOW OCCUPIED BY WAR SEAL MANSIONS, FULHAM. THIS TABLET IS ERECTED AS AN ABIDING TOKEN OF GRATITUDE TO ALL WHO CONTRIBUTED, BY MONEY OR SERVICE, TO THE SUCCESS OF THE SCHEME AND PARTICULARLY TO THOSE HERE RECORDED.'

Following this text are the names of members of the royal family and the managing council, which included Mrs Asquith, Jesse Boot and Gordon Selfridge, and honorary consultants. The lateral panels list the principal donors, drawn from a wide social and institutional range. Below these are two further tablets added subsequently at ground floor level, recording the change of name of the managing company from The War Seal Foundation to The Sir Oswald Stoll Foundation in 1937 and the Presidents of the foundation.

Rear Elevation

The rear of the building has a series of external landings and dogleg staircases providing access to the various flats. The staircases retain their original balustrades, but the landings have been replaced. Doors and windows have also been replaced, though their openings appear largely unchanged. The two large arches have brick voussoirs and the intrados of each tunnel-vaulted archway has finely-laid brickwork.

Interior

The interiors of the flats were not inspected. Three of the administrative offices in the western block were viewed and had no original features.

Exclusions

Pursuant to section 1(5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990, it is declared that the eastern and western ranges attached to the northern side of the range facing Fulham Road, together with the later 20th-century balcony landings which provide entrance to the flats to the rear of the southern range facing Fulham Road, are not of special architectural or historic interest.

Gates, Gate Piers, Wing Walls and Railings

To the front of the south front are iron railings with Portland stone piers. At the western end is a tripartite gate arrangement with a central driveway flanked by pedestrian entrances, all with wrought and cast-iron gates. The drive gates have a ramped head and dog bars to their lower body with scrollwork crest and lock rail.

The flanking stone piers are panelled to their south faces and inscribed with the names of battles and campaigns. Land battles are listed on the eastern pier: MONS; MARNE; AISNE; YPRES; FESTUBERT; SOMME; ANCRE; ARRAS; MESSINES; CAMBRAI and LE CATEAU. Sea battles are listed on the western pier: HELIGOLAND BIGHT; FALKLAND ISLANDS; DOGGER BANK; JUTLAND BANK and SURRENDER OF THE GERMAN NAVY. The piers have cast metal lanterns to their tops.

The pedestrian gates are flanked by attached Ionic columns which bear open segmental pediments. The left hand pediment holds a tablet inscribed 'IN HONOUR OF ALL OUR BRAVE MEN'. The right hand tablet reads 'THE EMPIRE'S TRIBUTE TO THE VALIANT'. This appears to be the work of Joseph and Smithem.

To the left of the gates, attached to No 448 Fulham Road, is a portion of rusticated wall bearing a rectangular plaque honouring the fortitude and sacrifice of those who have served in the armed forces since 1919.

The railings to the east of these gates, which connect to the range of about 1920, are likely designed by Inigo Tasker and date from about 1920. They continue eastward along Fulham Road and have pointed spearheads and dog rails to the lower body. A stone pier marks the eastern end. Panels are divided by openwork iron piers of square section with cast and wrought decoration.

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 17 December 2018.